Half a billion in the hand is worth two in the bush…

good post! sounds interesting

did AOL take a billion dollars loan to offer yelp more money than google?

Damn! I really wanted Yelp to be bought by Google! I guess Apple is a good partner too but please not Microsoft

I wouldn’t be suprised…honestly

I think you should also add “And dug their own grave”. I am not sure if you can survive the mistake of walking away from the big G. Just wondering if anyone has done so earlier and survived.

I think it could be Apple as they have recently acquired PlaceBase plus they have lots of cash in the bank.

i bet they realized that the market for startups is starting to pickup, and that a little bit down the road, they’ll be able to ride the hype wave for an even bigger amount.

it’s not like they are a needy startup with funds running out

Perhaps Yelp read your article about Wences Casares and decided that selling out is not actually what they wanted to do, especially in the wake of Jaiku, Dodgeball, etc.

Exactly. There is possibly another entity at play here. Apple? iPhone and Yelp make perfect marriage.

My theory (based on absolutely no inside information) is that Microsoft/Bing will be the group providing the strategic deal.

Yelp can help Bing further penetrate the travel vertical by providing a strong alternative to Trip Advisor supported by the search engine and FareCast meta-search platforms.

It will be interesting to see what develops.

You know what this means?

Google are just as likely to release a slew of engineers and create a bigger, better Yelp.

No one puts baby in the corner.

that certainly makes sense, but there are a lot of other options too. Even Yahoo or AOL could be involved. Or even stranger options (international partners, yellow pages, etc.)

Go Apple!

[...] Read more… [...]

Hehe. Apple? Pshh. Apple doesn’t have that kind of free cash flow.

=D

DST strikes again?

Did Yelp pull a Tiger Woods on Google?

yoyo

Yup, sarah’s post cause all this deal goes sideways. Way to go sarah!

Google should buy LinkedIn before MS gobbles it up.

You kidding me, right? Per Techcrunch they have 34 B in cash.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/10/19results.html

Apple has over $36 billion in the bank whereas Google only has $20 billion.

I doubt Google would have killed off Yelp early like it did to others. At least they would integrate it into their other products (Google Maps, etc)

It does not, not as much as Apple. Just as Google wants to buy or has bought its best search results, Apple would want to buy its really best Apps.

[...] reports that Yelp has walked away from the $550 million deal with Google. Wow—it was almost finished. Confidence much in Yelp, or something wrong in the agreement? [...]

It’s not as easy as it sounds and that’s the reason Google offered to buy Yelp in the first place.

Google enters (or tries to enter) a lot of markets, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that success is a given, a few examples would include:

Craigslist: Google’s Answer – Base. Result: Fail.

Wikipedia: Google’s Answer – Knol. Result: Fail.

YouTube: Google’s Answer – Google Video. Result: Fail.

Twitter: Google’s Answer – Jaiku acquisition. Result: Fail.

And this list is longer…

Why don’t techcrunch real-time stamp their posts?

[...] Trending Topic: And Half A Billion [...]

[...] Trending Topic: And Half A Billion [...]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=GOOG&annual

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=AAPL&annual

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT&annual

34B in cash? Lol. Look closely.

Microsoft still dominates.

I wished this deal did not happen.Thank God! The reason is simple.. I dislike Monopolies…Be it be Google, Apple or Microsoft. Competition is the secret sauce of creativity and is best for consumers(e.g., mobile phone carriers in India. If u know what I am speaking!)

Why no to microsoft and yes to apple?

If you ask me apple is bigger threat to advancement beause of their closed logic towards their ec-system.

At least microsoft is more open. Apple would just close yelp and it would only work the way it should with apple products.

I think I prefer my yelp on android devices, webos etc.

Get off the apple high horse already they did not invent oxygen or sense.

The list continues:

Exchange: Google’s Answer – Wave. Result: Fail.

Y! Answers: Google’s Answer – Answers. Result: Fail.

Live Messenger: Google’s Answer – GTalk. Result: Fail.

WolframAlpha: Google’s Answer – Squared. Result: Fail.

=\

Nah. Facebook is a better target. Gates and Zuckerberg. Both Harvard dropouts will one day unite their two companies.

FaceBing is coming your way.

;)

i cant believe yelp said no.

not enough money?

Yelp seems awesome. It thinks i live near San Francisco. I live in Stockholm, Sweden.

That’s just code for Google deciding to not do the deal. Just like when xobni “walked away” from microsoft but everyone in the know knew that microsoft bailed after taking a closer look. Let’s be real here, if there really was an offer for half a bill this deal would already be done. Its just when a company fires someone and to make them feel better they let them say they quit.

No kidding. I love Yelp, but they’re so slow to build out that it’s as if they’re standing in traffic, waiting to get hit by a bus. They’ve barely grown since March (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/yelp.com/), though the economy hasn’t been helping them.

lol.. Is this an automated comment or what?

Some times some companies make foolish mistakes, such as Yahoo! walking away from MFST, and this is one of those foolish mistakes for Yelp to walk away from Google. Not that I had liked the idea for Google to acquire Yelp, but just the fact that this was Yelp’s perfect exit plan.

live messenger and yahoo messenger are both way more popular than gTalk but I would not say gTalk is a failed product, actually thanks to gmail is getting popular. but still the list is good and the point of ‘google is good at everything it does’ stays strong

[...] TechCrunch: Yelp has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google; http://j.mp/6fqFvr [...]

Do you have sources? Is this just conjecture? Could we pretend that major news bloggers are journalists?

Very interesting. I’d love to know why.
I wonder what the VC’s wanted out of this…

re: “Apple would want to buy its really best Apps.”
Oh sure. Because Apple’s been just buying up content providers and web sites because they really really really want to own the code behind Apps that are given away for free at no charge. Wait. On second thought, that’s just stupid. I can tell you put in a lot of deep thought into that response.

Yelp is a great source of content and an even richer community with aggressively passionate and evangelistic people. A simple agreement to help financially sustain the company, an opportunity to grow on the backs (Read: Traffic) of someone bigger, and a commitment to “leave Yelp the hell alone” is probably what got them to bail.

Because for anyone that understands how Yelp makes money, (sponsorships, business packages, clean pages w/ minimal ads) I think it’s clear that Google’s business model does not align with Yelp’s.

So good!
I like the diversity and I hate monopolies.
Good decision, Yelp!

I think it’s a given now that they aren’t going to sell to anyone. Good for them.

FaceBing sounds like an unpleasant sexual act.

So what? We would have good company and community gone and replaced by google maps?

Great News they stay independant, maybe yellow pages will pick them up!

Or maybe Yelp is realizing Google for the stuffed shirt that it is and that they can do better on their own?

The post above outlines G’s failures in answering to the marketplace. I’m beginnning to think that they came up with the right idea at the right time and are just riding the wave of being the current MsFT of it’s generation

amen. but as pointed out, straight up wanting more money is probably not the motivation to walk away right now. Something else is up.

google was probably lowballing

i like this sentence in the article

“We’re betting that someone – Apple, Microsoft, etc.”

yea im sure apple will buy some company that doesnt enhance anything they offer whatsoever.

What is Google Answer? Never heard about it

g talk is def fail

fanboy

to many Appletards in these comments.

I say M$ came in a screwed it up for Google.

speaking of yelp-ish companies
Do you know this very cool startup in Mountain View
http://www.boorah.com/restaurants/
They did an excellent work crawling, collecting, analyzing restaurant reviews and producing restaurant ratings.
Their opinion mining is far away from being perfect, but the final scores are pretty good. I use their site and Android app

bing is already the search provider for facebook

Wow. A voice of reason amongst Apple fanboys.

Even after the iPhone’s totalitarian decision making around AppStore acceptance… even after the iTunes lockout of the PalmPre… even after the closed system they’ve built around the Mac to prohibit the usage of MacOS on anything other than their high margin, non-upgradable hardware…

…there are people here that would think APPLE would somehow be a better acquiring company than Google or Microsoft.

Wow. You hit the nail on the head. If they were to follow the same path with Yelp as they have with say iTunes, the iPhone & Safari versions of Yelp would work brilliantly whereas the Firefox & Windows versions would be utter memory pigs that would run half as fast as on Safari and look like they had interfaces designed using HTML 1.0.

May be Apple could buy it to augment it’s Maps app. Apple could very well launch it’s own Maps app (using Placebase tech) and add Yelp in to the mix. So, when people will browse maps, they can see reviews of certain places (like restaurants etc). Just a thought..

You don’t need to be so loud! Your ID says enough! ;)

I doubt Facebook selling before their IPO.

good reply! sounds interesting

What does Yelp do anyhow? It’s not like I live under a rock, but I’ve only just heard the name in the past few weeks. It’s not generating the kind of buzz that Twitter, Foursquare, Gist, or half a dozen of the Twitter apps are generating.

This is one of the surest signs that the recession is over, IMHO. OK, just in SF tech, and without any job creation, but still.

To take a cold hard look at that kind of bird in the hand and refuse, you have to be pretty confident in your other options. And those other options have to be pretty willing to let go of at least $500M.

Google’s been snapping up companies left and right – can’t imagine they’d find anything at this stage in the negotiations that would make them walk. They’ve probably seen every imaginable entrepreneurial skeleton in the closet by now.

More likely that in our world of real-time geo mania, another suitor threw in a wrench.

Only really could be Microsoft or Apple, or possibly RIM or Nokia. Not sure Yelp would provide enough “bling” for a Russian tycoon.

Looking forward to Arrington staying up all night figuring it out – I’ll wait to read the answer in the morning.

+1

And that’s coming from a Google fanboi.

half billion seems good offer. may be google ditched them afrer taking a closer look. just like digg.

Yeah, because Apple doesn’t have any products that could benefit from reviews of real places. If only they had a cell phone…

I really think you’re offbase here. Google wants ad revenue and ad revenue is generated by content generators.

Yelp, relative to other sites with a lot of paid content producers, generates content extremely cost effectively because they’ve established a feedback loop amongst free content contributors that are extremely passionate and evangelistic. Remember: Less than 50 people are paid to write content on Yelp. (They’re actually geography managers) The rest of their million plus content contributors do so FOR FREE.

Additionally, Yelp is the #1 review & opinion site in the world. And it’s very clear from recent events that Google wants to get into the “local business market”, particularly with their QR code efforts to drive more traffic to their search engine & ad serving properties.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/06/google-local-maps-qr-code/

I think Yelp got an opportunity the save their independence – where it came from I don’t know – but ultimately, this opportunity came in the form of revenue attach strategies, monetary infusion, …

…anything that would keep Google Ads from invading the otherwise clean & fresh Yelp interface… anything that would continue the work that’s been done to develop community through their “Elite” program and their “Community Managers”, all of which I suspect would have been toast under Google if the past history of their acquisitions tells us anything… anything that would allow the Yelp brand & Yelp management staff to survive assimilation and ultimately, deconstruction, because I’ve heard that Yelp’s offices is a really ultra-fun place to work.

good {error data entry}! sounds interesting

In Europe MS is also big in the review business with ciao.de/co.uk/fr…

Odd that the report is that Jeremy walked away from the table. You’d think that Yelp’s VC would have some say in the exit strategy.

Could it be that Google had some disclosure requirements that were not to Yelp’s liking?

Good thing it went south since I just released a video on Outsmarting Yelp! using Google search! :)

Interesting.

Who’s the fanboy with a ‘name’ like ‘Microsoft’?

Gtalk is a great product, one in which I assume you (Microsoft) haven’t used.

Yelp is run by idiots.

What makes these startups think they are worth so much!?!

Yahoo walked away from the biggest offer they will ever see because they were idiots, proving companies big and small think their crap is worth mor ethan it really is.

Yelp is a reviews site. That is all.

YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE HALF BILLION DOLLARS FROM GOOGLE. BUILD ANOTHER SITE DOWN THE ROAD IF THAT’S THE ISSUE. WHO CARES. YOU NOW HAVE A HALF BILLION DOLLARS IN THE WORST ECONOMY IN FIFTY YEARS OR MORE.

Complete asshat idiots at Yelp.

(Account Closed)

Yelp isn’t good enough for Apple. If you ask me, the co-branding from the iPhone app store release is a blemish on Apple’s image. Yelp is not even close to being the best location aware app for finding nearby restaurants, shops, etc. The interface alone is an abomination, and renders the app useless in the real world…

jkj;kj

Why is Apple considered a likely acquirer of Yelp? I guess it’s pure speculation based on their recent dumb, yet negligible move to buy LaLa.

What other rationale do we have to assume that Apple has all of a sudden become an M&A player. Apple’s history for consumer internet buyouts is pretty slim.

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/apple

Erm Wave isn’t an attempt at entering only the exchange market, it’s anattempt at evolving an antiquated, inefficient communication protocol. It’s only in preview, you can hardly claim it’s failed.

+1

Let’s collect money and buy Yelp!

Apple doesn’t make sense to me, as their style doesn’t favor the larger (startup) acquisitions… they like to pick off the peaches, not the $500B “wow” acquisitions.

The stated “facts” (aka “the spin”) — that Yelp’s CEO just felt a macho streak coming on and proceeded to walk away from a half a Billion dollars from GOOG (especially, in this economy)? Give me a break.

I like the Tiger analogy! Who walked out on who, that is the question. And, who is the third party?

But, more likely, a key VC decided this wasn’t the time to pull the trigger. So the leading suspect sets on Yelp’s bod…

Microsoft looks like the duck, walks like the duck, and swims like the duck. But… who knows? Bet idea: wait for Mike to stay up all night and figure it out…

-steve b

[...] | TechCrunch Comparte este [...]

Wow. That’s a big move.

Yelp owners probably fell to the overall economy ‘recovery’ hype, which is really a stimulus-bandage that will wash away this year.

They should’ve taken the money.

Their business model is not too far away from the way government does economic stimulus recovery, as they’ve garnered, with all the tens of millions in VC money, annual revenues of only $30 million, which will wash away once the VC money is burned away.

After all, their website, as Paul Carr would probably put it, “brings nothing to the party”.

This is good news for Google stockholders in my opinion.

2010: Facebook acquires Yelp and Foursquare. You not only know where your friends are and what businesses they frequent, but what they think of those businesses. Then those businesses can advertise to them. And so forth.

Cmon people.

Ben, that’s a fair and intelligent question. It got me to thinking.

I agree with you, Apple is not a likely acquirer; they still, even at their scale, have a startup ethos – as long as Jobs & Wells are in charge.

However, if you substitute “Microsoft” for “Apple” in your question, then the plot thickens. Microsoft is craving a competitive position in search alongside GOOG, and they may now be thinking that LOCAL search is the hot ticket.

In fact, given YHOO’s strength in local content and search, and given their (strained, but promising) alliance with Ms. Bartz, this would make total sense. And it’s SO CHEAP – for them.

That is just a hypothetical scenario; but it IS one, that would make these developments make sense. Balmer, under this scenario, will need to “pay up” for Yelp, now that they are in play. Who else will be after them now… that is the first question.

-steve b

As one respected commentator put it:

“It’s all just a little too creepy”

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=28759&tag=nl.e539

Google would be like “the Borg of local content.”

It’s called ‘face-saving’. By Google. For Yelp.

Josh, an interesting thought… but hey, since when has Facebook been acquisitive, or strategic in putting together their pieces on the chessboard of tech??

Heck, Facebook management can’t even figure out a parking policy for their new headquarters on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto! Palo Alto residents living on 100-year leased land, on the South end of the Stanford University Campus have been in a parking war with Facebook, since they moved in. As far as I can tell, Facebookers pretty much refuse to ride the shuttle, and instead park in the neighborhood, illegally… lol:)

I am a Facebook user and fan… but for them to move the Chess pieces on this deal with Yelp, stretches my imagination.

steve b

+1

I was wondering what could be worse than leaving G’s offer, you gave me the answer — Being acquired by MS.

Ahoy mate,

Us dirty russians would love t’ get our hands on this hot American property.

Arrrr!

[...] comes a snippet from a interesting discussion on Techcrunch revolving around the rumoured acquisition of Yelp by Google. Someone highlighted that [...]

What if Google walked away from the deal?. They have done it with few other companies in the past. You will never get to know the real story.

Clearly Microsoft stepped in with a netter offer. MS didn’t want to have to answer this purchase by Goog with a more expensive, less valuable product. They got burned on that move already when answering the doubleClick acquisition.

[...] Vía | TechCrunch [...]

I seriously doubt Google was interested in Yelp, in fact I don’t believe it at all. There is zero smarts in Yelp, very basic stuff that doesn’t fit Google’s MO at all.

You win the Internet, Nudist.

So Twitter just achieved profitability and Yelp just walked away from half a billion dollars. Sounds like the recession’s over for tech.

Thank God..I never wanted the deal to happen…Google might have integrated it with their 190,000 free stickers thingy that would have ruined Yelp..

[...] lo informan en TechCrunch, lo que parecía una inminente nueva adquisición por parte del gigante de las búsquedas quedó [...]

I think .. yelp should not sell itself to anyone of the brand … rather then It should grow on its own ..

Best,
Daina

Are you kidding me, gtalk is one of the best chat clients ever made. Msn messenger is popular for the same reason IE is popular, it fucking pisses me off how the majority of Microsoft products are popular based on ignorance or forced early adoption.

They are seemingly incapable of innovation unless it is absolutely forced upon them through competition, and even then they fuck it up most of the time.

s/when people will browse maps/when people will browse maps in California/

;)

[...] TechCrunch reports that this deal has derailed and that Yelp is walking away from a significant offer. The deal was, [...]

Paypal Google’s Answer – Checkout. Result: Fail.

MS oFfice Google’s Answer – Docs. Result: Fail.

DMOZ Google’s Answer – Google Directory. Result: Fail.

Amazon Google’s Answer – Catalogs, Resut Fail.

I am willing to bet it is not apple. Yelp is a scamville company and Apple has so far stayed away from such shady businesses.

Only MSFFT has the money to lose only to screw Goog

Goooooooooood post!*! Sounds interesting…..can I have a shot of Vodka?

[AUTOMATED POST]

[...] TechCrunch reports that this deal has derailed and that Yelp is walking away from a significant offer. The deal was, [...]

So they think they’re worth more than 550M $? That’s insane.

I think we’re in midst of the next tech bubble. I hope for all of us it doen’t bu…

SPLAAAASH!

To be honest, Checkout has been somewhat successful. As for Docs, well that remains to be seen.

Most of us already predicted that the deal of Yelp and G would play out just any other acquisition google had in the past. Surprisingly, even with
the generous ‘gift’ of 500 Million dollars presented by Goog, Yelp still found a way to turn it down. Why? here’s a detailed point of view: http://bit.ly/yelp-decline-google-best-worst

The bet of finding who give the ‘balls’ for yelp to decline the deal is something really worth seeking for.

So are we looking on a company wherein its string are being played by another group who doesn’t want Goog to take part with its monopoly spree adventure? Ah, you got to love those theories: http://bit.ly/yelp-decline-google-best-worst

Ty for the link diab.

Using stock symbols in your comment does not make you any cooler.

Google really doesn’t seem very good at buying and merging with other companies. Maybe they could hire some Cisco folks to help with that (back from when it was one of Cisco’s talents).

it could be a legal issue

I hope they made a wise decision otherwise it will become another big Y Mistake like Yahoo’s.

Congratulations Jeremy Stoppleman for not wanting to join the largest spyware company in the world, Google.

Respect!

Well done Yelp. You can go with anyone you want but not with evil google.

I dont’ get it….why google and Microsoft?

Surprised no one’s thrown out amazon as a dark-horse strategic partner or acquirer.

There’re some pretty powerful synergies to be had: most yelp searches are either for entertainment (bars restaurants clubs and other similar events) or for shopping (where can I buy X?); if you can’t see how amazon benefits from having access to that data — let alone from the ability to insert yourself into the results — then you’re not thinking hard enough.

Likewise freely delivering streamlined-and-optimized local info to your kindle (over its included cellular data plan) is a huge utility boost for the kindle; a kindle is now the omniscient, pan-global guidebook…which is an advantage none of the incoming e-reader rivals will match.

So teh Goog walks in and says we’ll pay you $550m and you have 1.5 years to become an adjunct feature of google maps; amazon shows up and makes a reasonable purchase offer with the bonus that yelp remains a company-within-a-company like netflix and zappos…

No information just speculation.

guy calm down, what is wrong with you? no one is fighting with you. however MSN messenger and live mail are not forced on people (like it is to use a google product you most likely need to have a gmail account….this is what it means to force things unto poeple). no one is forced to use messenger. to use a microsoft product you don’t need to have a live mail account.

Would be cool if just few millions would go to charity just few out of 500+

Recession? What Recession?

[...] Feds may not go easy on the Google -Yelp deal.  (JrDepAcct) Update: Yelp just Walked away from $500 mil:  (TechCrunch) [...]

Microsoft more open? In which alternate universe?

They are more open under 2 circumstances:
- They get forced by some authority, threatening to hit them with some ugly 1 billion dollar fine bat.
- They steal some GPL software and have to publish the source code after getting caught.

Doesn’t sound that much better to me tbh.

Google tries anything “social” and it bombs.

sigh…..facepalm

[...] [...]

amen.

it’s the third party contractor who worked for Microsoft that “stole” the GPL code not microsoft. get your facts right.

Google didn’t need Yelp. All Google has to do to get better reviews is make their review features more prominent. Right now, you can leave reviews for some stuff but its kind of hard to find the screen to do so.

[...] Die Übernahme von Yelp durch Google scheint erst einmal vom Tisch zu sein, so berichtet Techcrunch. [...]

Yeah, like the folks writing the check didn’t say- “we want you to copy that site- WOW?! it’s amazing, it’s exactly like their site- let’s go live….”

kind of like the rogue employee excuse that needs the boss’ signoff on every move.

yeah… or some kind of map like service in the works… http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/30/apple-gets-a-mapmaker-where-does-that-leave-google/

Apple could ABSOLUTELY benefit. Imagine the Yelp app included on EVERY iPhone sold or updated (to new versions of software). My money is on Apple.

[...] in the hall of mirrors TechCrunch is now saying that the deal is not happening that “Yelp walked away” and that the “deal went [...]

Yelp! IMHO is by far the most useful app next to maps on the iphone. It is the ultimate discovery/filter for proximity based transactions and I could see Apple offering to pre-install it on all new devices + stock.

It’s too powerful of a tool to let Google control.

What city do you live in?

Bah, Yelp wouldn’t have helped Google all that much anyway. I would have taken the money and run, myself! Google would be better off acquiring a company like DubLi.com. Far more potential with a lot more revenue raising avenues.

Google is very engineer-centric. Remember that they walked away from the Digg acquisition (surprised that was not referenced in the article considering the similarities) after realizing Digg’s tech team was… not quite up to par.

Perhaps the same thing happened here, and Google decided the integration costs would add too much to the deal?

31 million invested and an offer of 500 million exit. Not sure what these VC’s are thinking. Maybe some egos getting in the way of smart math.

It’s clear there is another deal on the table from another suitor…

bing.com/local shows pretty much all yelp content.
Google’s move was to eviscerate bing.

You have to believe that Microsoft reacted in a very strong way to the news of a possible deal, having lost out already on AdMob, particularly when Bing’s major differentiation is better results in vertical search. I also think Microsoft tends to partner rather than acquire content-rich Internet consumer companies, having already spun off Slate and Sidewalk.

you are insinuating. why don’t you put down facts and stop bullshitting everyone?

Looks like Google low balled Yelp. Most likely offered Yelp 3 X earning 150 Million over 2 years. 3 years ago the Yelp crew went over to R.H. Donnelley to negotiate a sale. I had a colleague who worked for M&A. She told me they were in negotiations with Yelp and they wanted top dollar. Now this was during a better market when R.H. was buying domains for millions. We wish Yelp the best. This whole experience was a shake up for many who use Yelp API.

I have an idea. It was Sarah Lacy’s story on Wences Casares. “I have sold all my companies, and I wish I hadn’t sold a single one. No matter how much money you make you’ll be surprised at how bad you feel later.”

It defaults to that city since their HQ are there when you first get on the site. It changes after you put in your city.

[...] deal, with a reported price tag of about $550 million, went wobbly over the weekend. According to Tech Crunch, the deal was all but done, but Yelp got cold feet and for the time being the purchase is off. [...]

[...] deal, with a reported price tag of about $550 million, went wobbly over the weekend. According to Tech Crunch, the deal was all but done, but Yelp got cold feet and for the time being the purchase is off. [...]

[...] if not the most important acquisition by Google ever. (Update: It looks like the deal is off, as TechCrunch reports that Yelp walked away from the negotiation [...]

Jeremy from Yelp like the Jerry from Yahoo?

it doesn’t make anyone any cooler and I doubt that’s the reason for their use here. on many sites stock symbols are automatically tagged (therefore, I hover or a click brings up the company, in question, stock history). it makes it much easier, however that auto tag doesn’t happen here at techcrunch.

I like to use stock symbols too, one of the reason is because in a lot of circumstances they are a lot shorter to type.

Checkout: mixed reviews, more time needed.

Docs: actually pretty successful if you ask me, and likely growing in use. this is one of the few areas Google has actually got a competitive product outside of Search (along with Gmail, Gmaps, & the YouTube acquisition).

still the list is pretty long even without these exceptions. Google does Search, Mail, Maps, & Video pretty well, but not much else (so far).

one would expect them to start being more aggressive about acquisitions, and it appears that is now the case (Admob acquisition, Yelp attempt, etc)

AOL looking to buy associated content and Yelp is now in play… Goog trying to make Tim A look bad here.

Maybe TimA decided to at least see what $750M would get him — at least a little in on the discussion.

Can’t believe that AOL has not moved to put Bebo on the block yet. That is a total POS, but could raise $400M ( given that they bought it for $800M).

So I think AOL stepped in and caused the moment of consideration from Yelp.

Yelp may have also looked at MySpace and said that they screwed it up by selling out as they just started to reach an inflection point. How much did those guys whine about how they only got $600M for the best thing to ever hit the web.

Yelp is a 1B+ maybe even 2B. Its the wet dream of AOL’s strategy. If Yelp holds out, they might be able to buy AOL!!! ha, as if they would.

Hey, Mike

Google walked away from the deal….

after due diligence.

Yelp is spinning the story that they walked away of course…. which is in fact false.

What a bonehead move. Yelp is going to be blown out of the water soon. They are destined to become the Friendster of UG recommendation sites.

I think that Tim Armstrong and Aol will emerge in the picture. They are betting the farm on content and local, making Yelp a prime target.

Search Yelp, powered by Bing!

Could it be that Google wanted to cleanup the scamy operations or did not want to associate with a company with unfair sales tactics that is in the business of selling ‘deletion of negative reviews’?

It would not make sense , they are locked in with CitySearch also they do not use Mapquest.

Google Answers was around before Y! Answers. GTalk is used every day by large numbers of people, especially embedded in Gmail…

I almost never use Yelp! (is that fricking exclamation mark really part of their name?). I live in NYC and I get the worse recommendations from their search.

I actually end up using Google, Citysearch (dubious at best) and NYMag.

When I read ” Google walked away from the deal it has done that with Digg and few others in the past” I am really mad. Yes Google is arrogant, they let startup thinks they will acquire them, then they digg freely in the core of the company data and intellectual property (like they did with DIGG) and then they ditch the deal and copycat. Very sad..

I don’t know any companies who likes Google, 2010 will be hard for them. There is way too many industries that are being ripped off by them.

my bet is BING! they need a review site badly. they’re already mimicking google with local business listings.

Oh no Joo didn’t!

iPhone Google’s answer – Android. Result: Fail.

Gizmodo Google’s answer – Techcrunch. Result: Fail.

Tablet Arrington’s answer – Crunchpad. Result: lolz

iPhone, Google’s answer – Android. Result: Fail.

Engadget, Google’s answer – Techcrunch. Result: Fail.

Tablet, Arrington’s answer – Crunchpad. Result: lolz

Yelp just blew it. Google Directory is already a great app on Android – it’s easy to push that out to Maps and incorporate reviews and a more robust system. It may take some time but Google will accomplish what it needs without Yelp – Yelp would have been a great jumpstart but meh, whatever. Yelp is half spam reviews anyway.

Yelp! Wow, they just blew it. Google will accomplish what it needs without them. Maps is already incorporating reviews and Google Directory for Android is an amazing app. Would have been a great start but whatever, who cares. They need to deal with their scam ops and reviews anyway.

[...] in the hall of mirrors TechCrunch is now saying that the deal is not happening, that “Yelp walked away” and that the “deal went [...]

[...] in the hall of mirrors TechCrunch is now saying that the deal is not happening, that “Yelp walked away” and that the “deal went [...]

errr, wouldn’t microsoft be the current microsoft of its generation?

Hey Victor,

We all know that if I were any higher you would have to scrape me off the ceiling.

yeah…stop hatin on the computer.

found a cheap comment generater here: http://www.pricequest.com I think I’ll make a use of it too :)

Google just got some milk w/o buying the cow.

Bravo to Messr. Drummed et al.

Shocking. Yahoo 2.0 – lets see how it unfolds. Only MS/Bing could have affected this deal imo.

Dear Yelp, sell high.

This is lame on yelp’s end. EVEN if Yelp was walking away, they would not tell Google this and let it leak out. The moment this leaks out, they lose all leverage with negotiating with their strategic partner because the strategic partner knows they can’t go back to google anymore.

Yelp will regret it like digg regretting passing on multiple goog offers.

[...] TechCrunch is citing multiple sources saying Jeremy Stoppleman simply walked away from the deal, but the reason why remains to be seen. TC postulates that a strategic partnership could be brewing allowing Yelp to remain independent for now. [...]

@Barry : Android Result: Fail

Are you kidding me ? This is their biggest success of the last 3 years.

It has blown away all the entrenched players (Nokia, RIM, Palm, MS) to already grab the 2nd spot within a short period of launch and already catching up to #1.

Agree with all the other Google Fails though (though gtalk is debatable.)

Great plot unfolding. I agree with some of the commenters here that MSFT jumped in at the 11th hour. They are fighting Goog for marketshare on the search-side and if Goog adds Yelp to their chest, they gain strong advantage. If Yelp however decided on their own to hold out down the road for a stronger offer (hard to believe) then like “my locator” said Jeremy will earn a place right next to Yang, thinking they can do better in the open market.

Have to agree with Mark on this one.

Android’s gaining traction.

[...] may have just turned down a half-billion dollar takeover offer from Google. Zynga does a crazy-big $180m funding. Not long [...]

I feel like Bing must have come into play here. It makes a lot of sense for them to do everything they can to not let Google get Yelp. I also wonder if Amazon would get involved here? They are working hard not increase revenues and compete with Walmart. This isn’t their bread and butter, but no one even mentioned them as a possibility. I bet they took a look.

=)

Hmm… BingBook doesn’t sound that much better.

[...] The big news on Friday was that Google and Yelp had nearly cinched negotiations for a buyout with Google acquiring the social consumer site, for a sum rumored to be over $500 million.  Well, that deal is off according to breaking news today at TechCrunch. [...]

My guess is that Google was getting cold feet while completing the due diligence, Yelp knows that their business is riddled with major flaws and saw the deal headed south, so they bailed out first to save their reputation with the hope to trick someone else in acquiring them later.

There is simply no way Yelps investors would have walked away from a huge liquidity event in exchange for a “strategic” deal with anyone.

what idiots .

would be funny if yelp’s search traffic referrals suddenly started dropping…. (bah humbug)

Finally someone with a brain responds.

Pretty sad they haven’t fixed that.

They just better hope what ever they were offered to turn down this deal actually works out. If they have to go back to Google in a month or two I doubt the number is going to be as high as $500mil.

Bing, Apple, News Corp ..

[...] It seems that a half billion dollars was not enough. That’s the price Yelp, the local reviews site, was set to fetch on Friday as it entered into late stage negotiations with Google. But last night TechCrunch reported that the deal had fallen apart. [...]

+1 apple would benefit greatly to start building a mobile content / mobile search platform.

Yelphoo!

Google should look at PlanetBuzz.com it has better functionality than Yelp, charges much less to businesses and it’s consumers are REAL people, not paid Yelpers.

ouch dude.

New poll “Should Yelp sell to Google?”
http://bit.ly/4z7o4b

[...] Yeah, the story is now a fact. Some thing happened behind the doors and as a result we are not going to see a Google acquisition of Yelp!. The Deal was almost done with both parties agreeing to a $550 million plus earning offer from Google. What could have turned the tide then? (TechCrunch reports) [...]

That is an interesting comment and a good one. Yelp is NOT a tech play or a content play, rather, they use their tech to organize the content of the world and make it easily accessible. Unless they are changing their stripes, they were just doing some due diligence and bumping up the price for rivals.

yeah , I doubt it’s apple !

@MikeAbundo: you make me laugh. that is all.

+10

I would say, Yelp and Google can still possibly strike a deal, if the partnership is Yelp + Android.

[...] easy, territorial Yelpers: According to TechCrunch, a late-stage change of heart (or circumstance) led Yelp to walk away from a reported $550 million [...]

Having gone through the process of selling a previous company for $100 million in which I was an officer, I can share that if we knew the acquiring company would effectively bury our technology in their existing product line and killing it, we’d have not sold the company.

Sure – we made a pile of money for ourselves and investors, but there’s something to be said about seeing your efforts endure – and not fade into oblivion!

Maybe this is what is on the minds of the Yelp! staff! Google doesn’t have a great track record at turning acquisitions in to winners, let alone integrating their portfolio of companies into a cohesive platform.

Nice!

From your lips to the tech gods ears.

[...] a case of cold feet at the alter with Google.  Reasons, so far are in short supply according to TechCrunch and the NewYorkTimes.   No doubt the story is far from over and similar advances on Yelp are in [...]

speaking from experience, Yelp will regret it!

Gtalk is indeed a great product.

Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal…

TECH CRUNCH – Dec 20 – Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google for more than half a billion dollars. The deal was in the later stages of negotiation…….

“since when has Facebook been acquisitive”

They did buy Friendfeed & Parakey. However, their acquisitions seem to be more about talent than technology. I’m sure Yelp has some smart people, but the bar has been set pretty high since those two acquisitions got them the creators of GMail, Adsense, and Firefox.

Google is known for walking away from deals if the tech isn’t up to their high standards. Meaning, they are unlikely to buy a company if the code looks like shit.

How about AOL?

[...] acquire the local reviews website. However, it seems Yelp has had second thoughts, as late Sunday TechCrunch, which first publicized the deal, reported that Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman personally walked away [...]

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

I’m going to go out on a limb and say the pre-disclosure valuation was based on IP that may or may not do what it should or could.

I worked at Fair, Isaac, validating behavior scorecards. I know what goes into a predictive algorithm, and what it takes to ensure that the predictive nature is repeatable, stable, and testable, to guarantee fair consistent outcomes.

I’ve spoken to their new sales staff and believe they have cleaned up the “process”, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still happen. What they haven’t done is implemented a fairness doctrine. Google would have so, but I am pretty sure I know why the deal went south and get it.

Correction: pre-disclosure valuation was PROBABLY based on IP…

god why does this feel like reddit?

i’m a bit sketchy about this yelp deal because i didn’t think they matched well, despite all the positivity people had about this deal. i’m not surprised about this at all. i mean what made google think that yelp was willing to sell at this time (despite some other commentor pointing out that yelp isn’t growing).

500M is a lot to walk away from with 30M in revenues growing to 50M possibly in 2010. Yelp has shown they can gain market share over City Search and Yellow Pages (ATTI) without blinking an eye. Of course it helps that CS and YP/ATTI product team and engineering teams are clueless.

The obvious play is cell phone provider/Local Search company. This could even be Verizon or AT&T putting up some cash. AT&T might be particularly interested given it’s disastrous investment into YP.

What everyone should keep in mind is that although Yelp’s growth in local search has been impressive over it’s competition (CS, YP), Google’s has been more impressive. Google has 99% of mobile searches – of course that’s not the same as searches on a review site like Yelp but anyone walking away from Google is walking to the grave yard. Of course that doesn’t mean that short term Yelp can’t get more for their investors from a cell phone company.

Long term plays against Google are misguided at this point.

no wonder web search results suck on facebook

Google got cold feet because of all of Yelp’s extortion tactics to manipulate the user ratings..

The Big G didn’t want the liability….

Yelp’s revenue is a house of cards when this “pay or i’ll break your knee caps” tactic wears thin with small businesses.

i agree with microsoft, it’s a fail,
it hasn’t been updated in the longest time

it’s missing so many features other chat tools have had for almost a couple decades now.

Yelp walked away… Yeah right! and I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you.

Google got cold feet when they realized that Yelp preys on small businesses for revenue. These extortion tactics will bite Google big time “do no evil”…

As Jeremy is finding out, Karma is a bitch…

+1 this is true, Yelp forces small businesses to “remove” bad reviews

[...] that big Google-Yelp rumor? Well, you can stick a big fork in it.  Guess half a billion wasn’t quite good enough. Posted by Brinke at 2:35 pm | View Comments | Links to this post [...]

Thanks for the intelligent and pertinent insight. It’s a rarity these days.

At least it’s a pause in Google’s gobbling up of the Internet.

[...] Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars (tags: Deals yelp google m&a) Share and Enjoy: [...]

Augmented Reality and Advertising will converge big time in 2010. Yelp worth WAY more. And when they fold all that into an addictive Socialgame (i.e. farmville) that drives traffic to the businesses, forget about it!!

[...] acquire the local reviews website. However, it seems Yelp has had second thoughts, as late Sunday TechCrunch, which first publicized the deal, reported that Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman personally walked away [...]

[...] Via: TechCrunch [...]

Yelp should change it’s name to Gulp.
Take the money Jeremy!

[...] that the deal was unraveling was first reported Sunday night by [...]

ya, google made an offer and then realized that yelp thrives on small businesses; ya, google was born yesterday

There is the smell of IPO in the air! Oh that’ll be sweet. Can you imagine the “silent pre-IPO period” where the company can’t say anything!? Oh my, I”m almost giddy. Oh so much fun!

I’ll start drafting blog posts asking lots of questions that investors will need to know the answers to before taking the plunge.

AOL will ruin the anything they touch

Still think strategically Bing would be the most likely suitor -

a) Microsoft has cash
b) Focused on beating Google with more targeted semantic search results (see recent JV with Wolfram|Alpha)
c) Universal search results for travel already incorporate FareCast rate predictions in top slot of organic SERP.
d) Already integrating Yelp reviews (and Citysearch) into restaurant and hotel local search results (Google using TripAdvisor & Frommers).
e) Don’t want to give up local/mobile search battle with Google – especially with GOOG’s new Favorite Places / QR code sticker program – stakes have been raised.

Yelp is definitely the hot girl at the prom – and she just showed Google she wasn’t easy…

Actually, you have been living under a rock.
Substantial buzz and passionate consumers and advertisers paying real cash.

[...] Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars (tags: google acquisition) [...]

Way to go Microsoft.

[...] Google/Yelp deal, which seemed close just a few days ago, is indeed gone, at least for now. But even if that one doesn’t go through, no need to worry. Google has [...]

Man, I would certainly sell out for $500 _billion_ :)

Yelp will loose it’s substance when it gets sold to Google. It will no longer be able to offer good reviews.

Google will kill Yelp . Same with the other evils like Apple and News Corp.

Only Microsoft / Bing might do some thing that’s revolutionary (like Bing to search) rather than evolutionary (Google, Apple iPhone lol… 2G,3G,3GS and perhaps in june 3GSS (Super Speed lol…))

“international partners” .. like Russian :)

[...] my colleague Claire Cain Miller and others have reported, some people with knowledge of the discussions said that Yelp walked away. The reason [...]

It behooves me to say that should Yelps management decide not to climb into bed with anyone else it’s their choice right?

Users do not generate meaningful content on Citysearch and Mapquest sale or opened up could replace google maps.

trust me, AOL is trying to figure out how to spend $700-$750 — To me, there will be a $225M earn out and a purchase of around 500-525M.

Yelp thinks its worth it, and they will bite on the higher earn out.

I have seen it before with google and cisco and to a lesser extent with oracle; big company buys smaller company and then crushes the very spirit and vitality that made the small company worth paying the big bucks for it in the first place. Maybe Yelp needs help, but not from google, please.

[...] a deal after months of negotiation. No word on what changed Yelp’s mind, though, according to TechCrunch, the decision by the company was reached over the [...]

Just a few more thoughts and possible reason why yelp may have backed out of the deal, I found the last one really funny here:
http://www.groovypost.com/howto/google/yelp-backs-out-of-google-acquisition/

[...] fuente cercana al caso dijo en Techcrunch que las conversaciones estaban actualmente paralizadas por las preocupaciones entre algunos [...]

[...] Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google for more than half a billion dollars. TechCrunch [...]

I’m glad that the GoogleMonster didn’t guy Yelp. Google, like Microsoft and Apple, seems to believe that the future to their success is buying other people’s ideas. That’s how Google got YouTube, Wave, Gmail, google Maps, Android, etc. Yes, the Google Monster does do a lot of homegrown stuff after it acquires these companies, but it was these small companies that did the original work on these great software; Google just got interested in it, and then got greedy. As a Yelper, I’m glad that Yelp is going to stay independent; otherwise, I would have cancelled by reviews and deleted my profile. Anything to keep out of the clutches of the evil GoogleMonster.

Yelp y Google: No hay trato…

Jeremy Stoppleman (CEO de Yelp) ha anunciado que han abandonado las negociaciones por las que Google quería adquirir su empresa (el trato estaba en unos 500 millones de dólares).
La noticia ha sido algo inesperado, ya que las negociaciones entre
…

Thank you for this little article which helped me to understand this deal.

[...] pioneered funky new augmented reality technologies using QR codes and Google Goggles, and damn near snatched up Yelp (deal is off as of this writing). In short, Google has shown hunger for a big chunk of the local [...]

[...] to Buy Yelp Gawker – Google Attempting to Swallow Trashy-Tasting Yelp TechCrunch – Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)What do you mean where have I been? I been busy, [...]

[...] the thing: this is a space that is going to merit our energies in the coming months. Take a look at these two recent posts and note the common thread: Yelp. The primary competitor for Foursquare and [...]

But if he was “in the later stages” of a deal, he wanted to sell. If you want to sell and something changes your mind, then it can only be money.

While Google’s strong point is to organize content, it just isn’t that good at providing/generating content. They should’ve stick to what they’re good at.

But hey, kudos to those who can turn down half a billion popsicles and not wet their pants.

deal went south because Yelp wants more $$$. Has nothing to do with any other speculation.

Uh, I want to chat with chat, not have ‘features’. The last time I fired up MS chat it forced an update on me which kept adding crap to the already-painful screen. gtalk is Notepad, MS is like the MS Word of chats but with feathers and adverts.

Yelp doesn’t generate content either. Users do.

[...] a BILLION dollars. But this morning TechCrunch is now reporting that Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman has walked away from the deal although they had agreed on a $550 million dollar price tag and were in the late stages of [...]

Of course, only one thing will happen: they’ll regret it.

google is better then Microsoft anyways.

[...] the wake of Google’s dalliance with Yelp, another online local advertising company, ReachLocal, filed for an IPO today to raise $100 [...]

As someone with lots of hindsight; there are few scenarios where it makes no sense to not take the money.

Anand, do Indians use Yelp? does India have its own Yelp? why do you feel like responding?

I have an idea. Read comments before commenting.

Yelp acted dumb

$ 550 mill

Just like when Yahoo refused MSFT buy ought which they now regret.

Not wise at all Yelp

You are right. Bing is using Yelp data and seems buy it.

[...] nun die Kehrtwende. Yelp wird nicht verkauft. Zumindest nicht an Google, wie es scheint. “Ein besseres Angebot von jemand anderem” [...]

Just watch, in a few years Yelp will be overshadowed by a new site…

Google just introduced realtime search–maybe they want Gowalla or Foursquare instead?

No, Microsoft is now IBM.

Ha. Google is a player and has had, and will have a lot hotter

If you work or have worked in finance or anything to do with equities, using stock symbols is simply your language

FB will need to go public before major acquisitions.

Actually, the NY Times is reporting GOOG did walk away

[...] qui pourrait lui servir dans sa stratégie de communication et de publicités locales. Selon TechCrunch, Yelp renoncerait au deal proposé par Google pour rester indépendant, faisant ainsi une croix sur [...]

[...] losing that opportunity to Google and Yelp (which this weekend was to be part of Google and then was not) and Foursquare — or at least they are losing the opportunity to work with and exploit what [...]

Count as many failures as you want for Google. The aggregate does not and will not come to its SUCCESS in search!

I think one way to help yelp be more profitable is to offer cheap $3.95/month or $20/year subscriptions. Or you can write a review to earn one month free.

I know one site similar that has a business model like this and I find myself contributing a review each month. Sometimes I find myself going out just so I can write a review! However, with yelp I just leech and use their reviews and never contribute anything myself.

Gee, that’s a peanut gallery comment.

“Oh gee. Jim Hawkins doesn’t use Yelp. Why in heavens would Google even consider acquiring them?”

What part of “#1 Review & Opinion Site in the World” did you not understand? Just because you don’t find it useful, doesn’t mean the rest of the interested community hasn’t found Yelp to be useful.

they must be having their own idea of business for sure

[...] Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google for more than half a billion dollars. Then something happened that made Yelp reconsider the deal. Over the weekend they notified Google that they were not going to sell, say multiple sources. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/20/yelp-walks-away-from-google-deal-and-half-a-billion-dollars/ [...]

[...] month.. Meanwhile, talks for Google to acquire Yelp for  $550 million plus earnouts seem to have broken down. Everyone assumes there was another bidder (Apple? Microsoft?), but it seems that Google is not [...]

[...] was nearly acquired by Google for around $500 million before the deal broke down last week.  The fast-rising local reviews site now might try the public markets instead.  The [...]

[...] review site which it turns out, has turned down an offer of $550 million plus earnouts according to TechCrunch at the last minute of signing a [...]

[...] Five hundred and fifty million dollars Over half a billion dollars; the price that Yelp turned down when they walked away from selling to Google. [...]

That’s means web is still profitable.

Yelp is a stupid name. Its mostly just in the Bay area anyhow. Google can build somthing better, anybody can. Google is going to build a consumer relationship managment system that will allow users to do everything they do on the internet from one log-in. That is the holy grail for them for sure. Eliminate the competition. All of these clown sites can be trashed by Google if they do it right. They are all one trick ponies trying to diversify, Facebook, Yelp, Twitter. Google already has most of the ingredients to do it all. Yahoo tried but failed somehow.
One log-in, with real privacy and a customizable online experience to make the internet do what you want.

[...] G­oog­le­ an­d Ye­lp’s­ faile­d de­al – If lo­cal search­ was unlikely t­o­ see a d­ecent­ o­ngo­ing up t­ick, Go­o­gle m­igh­t­ no­t­ h­av­e as m­uch­ int­erest­ in acq­uiring a sit­e like Yelp. Ev­en if Go­o­gle was j­ust­ b­uying Yelp o­ut­ t­o­ rem­o­v­e co­m­pet­it­io­n fo­r it­’s o­wn lo­cal st­uff, it­ st­ill sh­o­ws an ackno­wled­gem­ent­ t­h­at­ lo­cal search­ is q­uit­e im­po­rt­ant­. [...]

[...] plusieurs sources proches du dossier, TechCrunch estime que la start-up de San Francisco aurait quitté la table des négociations, car elle aurait [...]

[...] II Monkeys to Mars! Dell Mini 9 Explodes – Truth on Netbook Chip Firefox 3.5 Wins for now Connect a Keyboard to your iPhone ReadWriteWeb 2010 Predictions Facebook 2009 Top Updates Nerd and Geek Should be Praised! Why Howard Stern should Leave Sirius XM Yelp and Google – Talks break down because of Tech Crunch [...]

[...] acquired music service Lala. More on this as we find out more.What do you think went wrong?[ TechCrunch ]Tags: $550 Million, acquisition, ceo, deal, google, imminent, Jeremy Stoppleman, offer, Yelp This [...]

[...] According to TechCrunch, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman walked away from the deal this weekend just as it was reaching the later stages of negotiation. TechCrunch speculates that another company may have approached Yelp for a strategic deal that would urge Stoppleman to back away from the Google deal. [...]

[...] 昨年末は「GoogleがYelpを$500M以上で買収するという噂」ありました（結局は流れたようですが） [...]

I personally would have loved this deal to have gone through. Google’s sourced reviews from Citysearch and the like are pretty limited and tend to make great businesses appear wretched and awful ones appear great. Yelp is usually pretty well-reviewed and agreeable, stress on the usually.

[...] losing that opportunity to Google and Yelp (which this weekend was to be part of Google and then was not) and Foursquare – or at least they are losing the opportunity to work with and exploit what those [...]

[...] They are losing that opportunity to Google and Yelp (which was to be part of Google and then was not) and Foursquare – or at least they are losing the opportunity to work with and exploit what those [...]

[...] Yelp walks away from half a billion dollars in deal w/Google (rep jo) (tags: Bookmarks) [...]

[...] Google and Yelp’s failed deal – If local search was unlikely to see a decent ongoing up tick, Google might not have as much interest in acquiring a site like Yelp. Even if Google was just buying Yelp out to remove competition for it’s own local stuff, it still shows an acknowledgement that local search is quite important. [...]

[...] platform. With Yelp now in the check-in location game, maybe Google will be kicking itself for not scooping them up when they had the chance. After all, I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot of movement in [...]

[...] fresh off of leaving Google at the altar, is closing a hefty fifth round of financing from Elevation Partners, say multiple [...]

[...] Summary: Yelp is the fastest growing review site online, and is rumored to have walked away from a $550M offer from Google.  They’re worth this much because they’ve created a decent base of regular [...]

[...] growing review sites on the web – for more than $500M.  Then, over the weekend, there were new reports that the deal with Google may be off due to another suitor (Microsoft, perhaps?) offering Yelp an [...]

[...] on Amazon’s “search inside this book.” Maybe this is some kind of payback for Yelp’s recent cold feet at the marriage altar. You don’t jilt the [...]

Well, if they are that confident that the site will get popular with people, I’d say keep the Billion dollar Google, I’d make my own million. Anyhow, I don’t really see Yelp making that much money just yet. People are into other Social Networking site and other sites as Twitter and Facebook are more popular.

[...] it one of the most visited websites on the Internet. Late in 2009 Yelp notoriously declined a $550 million acquisition offer from Google [...]

[...] for now at least Qype may remain independent. But like Yelp, which had its own acquisition drama late last year, Qype is in the local advertising sweet spot, where billions of advertising dollars [...]

[...] for now at least Qype may remain independent. But like Yelp, which had its own acquisition drama late last year, Qype is in the local advertising sweet spot, where billions of advertising dollars [...]

[...] Poco prima di Natale la notizia del “Gran Rifiuto”: il fondatore Jeremy Stoppleman respinge i 550 milioni di dollari offerti da Google per l’acquisizione della società e decide di tirare dritto per la sua strada. Dopo un mese [...]

[...] more than 6 months old and from sites that are not widely used as Yelp.  On an interesting aside, Google tried to buy Yelp in December but was re-buffed and I imagine that somewhere at Google, someone is working on a product to wipe [...]

so nice.

[...] by user reach. And the founder of Foursquare was not amused. Yelp, already gone international, turned down a rumoured Google offer to acquire the service for $550m and is a potential candidate for an IPO in 2011 in my opinion. As [...]

[...] the weekend, Yelp notified Google that it was not going to sell, multiple sources say according to TechCrunch. TC isn’t too sure what made the deal go sour, as is anyone. TC is still “working on [...]

dizi izle, online dizi,dizi keyfi,canlidizi, ezel dizisi izle, dizisi izle, kurtlar vadisi dizisi izle.

Any recent news on what happened? Did Yelp have another offer?

No, I looked everywhere, seems they were bluffing!

wise decision

+1